14 - 20 December 2000
Issue No.512
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 14 - 20 December 2000 Issue No.512 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
'Tell me another one..'?
In an unexpected move, Counsellor Ali Abdel-Shakour, head of the judicial committee supervising elections at professional syndicates, has decided that Bar Association elections will take place in February. Abdel-Shakour has asked the interim committee running Bar Association affairs to make all the necessary arrangements before the middle of January, including updating voters' lists and preparing polling stations.
Lawyers were generally sceptical in their responses to Abdel-Shakour's statement.
"If the government intended to hold elections, why has it kept delaying them since last July?" leftist lawyer Mohamed El-Damati wondered. "Government officials know quite well that they cannot impose their candidate on lawyers and that it would, therefore, be better for them to drop the issue altogether." He added that the coming elections of the Shura Council and the municipalities would provide yet more excuses for the government to delay the Bar Association elections.
Nor does prominent lawyer Mohamed Asfour expect a speedy resolution to the "endless crisis" of the Bar Association. He has lately distanced himself from developments at the syndicate, after personally concluding that nothing will ever change.
The majority of lawyers have been preoccupied with the recent parliamentary elections and with demonstrating their support for the ongoing Palestinian Intifada. This, they argue, is why the attempt to regain control of their own syndicate has been at best modest.
"After Eid Al-Fitr [expected on 27 December], lawyers will resume their struggle regarding the elections," said Wafdist Ahmed Nasser, a candidate for syndicate chairman, who added that lawyers will not accept further delays.
Members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have ended their short-lived alliance with Raga'i Attiya, the government's candidate for syndicate chairman. It had been widely rumoured among lawyers that the Brotherhood had promised to back Attiya in return for his promise to use his influence to persuade the Supreme Military Court to acquit 20 Brotherhood members who were standing trial in a case dubbed the "professional syndicates trial". After 15 leading figures were sentenced a month ago to jail terms ranging from three to five years, the majority of Brotherhood lawyers felt that Attiya had deceived them, and so they decided to stop dealing with him. Mukhtar Nouh and Khaled Badawi, members of the disbanded Council of the Bar Association, were sentenced to three years behind bars each.
Islamist lawyer Fatemah Rabie commented, "After getting rid of active Brotherhood lawyers, the government should now allow elections to take place." Rabie told Al-Ahram Weekly that the government has no choice but to organise elections, knowing that lawyers would no longer remain with folded arms. Rabie expects that the coming period will witness a confrontation between lawyers and the government if the latter does not deliver on its promise and organise elections in February.
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